Building The Middle-kingdoms

Labels

Monday, August 14, 2017

In the game, we need some way of describing your character, the fighter you will pretend to be. We can say the fighter is "strong, fairly nimble, not too smart"— but we need to describe the character a little better than that. We call these descriptions abilities.

The Basic version of the game that I am mostly drawing inspiration from calls these character defining traits abilities. Since Savage Dungeons is a designed for use with Savage Worlds we can refer to these defining traits as attributes.

In Savage Dungeons every Basic Quickdraw
Wildcard Character has 3-6 defining "Attributes."

Yes I am aware of the rules as written, but since Savage Dungeons has grown out of my home game which includes children ages 5, 8,10, 22, and "older than 22", I am experimenting with how minimal things can get and still work with Savage Worlds rules as written—remember the monster stat block experiment? (I've been able to run a game quite well using only one die type to represent all attributes and skills for monsters.)

The basic set of attributes for Savage Dungeons are Strength, Agility, and Smarts. While they are broad categories that cover many
different but related aspects of a character, having only three makes it as easy for young players and extremely new players to keep track of what die they need to roll for a given task.

Strength defines how
strong and durable your character is. The attributes of Strength and Vigorare
both folded into the Strength attribute. Strength relates to physical actions
such as forcing doors, fighting with melee weapons, physical endurance and resisting
disease. Strength is the primary attribute for Fighter and Dwarf archetypes.

Agility describes
how fast and physically coordinated your character is. Agility is quickness,
movement, dexterity, and reflexes. Agility relates to actions such as dodging
attacks, sneaking around quietly, picking locks, throwing objects, and shooting weapons. Agility is the primary attribute for the Thief and Halfling archetypes.

Smarts determines how smart, knowledgeable, and likable your character is. This attribute includes both Smarts and Spirit. Smarts relates to solving puzzles, remembering
facts, telling convincing lies, using Magic and mental resistance. Smarts is the primary attribute for the Magic-user, Cleric, and Elf archetypes.

Since Savage Dungeons is trying to maintain the feel and flavor of the basic version of the original fantasy RPG, all the archetypes have fixed stats at the start of the game. So far this approach has worked well especially for players coming from a traditional F20 RPG background where the d20 does most of the rolling for attacks and skill checks and the concept of potentially rolling a different die type for each action can be as difficult to grasp as the classical dynamics of spinning tops.

What's your thoughts on this minimalist take on Savage Worlds attributes?

The village hedge mage has lost their familiar and you have managed to track it into to the edge of the Darken Forest on the border of the Savage Marches, a dark and forbidding land. The cat's trail ends at what looks like a badger hole just inside the tree line. The cat's meow can be heard echoing from below...

3"x3" Dungeon Diviners cards in use as a random dungeon generator.

This week as my oldest son and I were playing around with Dungeon Diviners cards and ICRPG cards we came up with a small map and an adventure seed. I was inspired to take that to the next level.

Maybe you shouldn't have made that left turn in Albuquerque, perhaps you shouldn't have insulted that nicely dressed man in the casino, or perhaps that old silver mine was only a legend after all. However you found yourself in this godforsaken place, you never thought you would be asking yourself, "If a voice cries out in the wilderness and it goes unheard does it make a sound?" ...and what's up with those kids on BMX bikes?

Desert of The Damned includes a full 30 x 35-inch map as well as 11 modular 9-inch hexes featuring the Hexomorfo system.

The printable tiles were designed to be used as print and play or as a complement to the 2.5D tile creation method created by DM Scotty.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Maybe you shouldn't have made that left turn in Albuquerque, perhaps you shouldn't have insulted that nicely dressed man in the casino, or perhaps that old silver mine was only a legend after all. However you found yourself in this godforsaken place, you never thought you would be asking yourself, "If a voice cries out in the wilderness and it goes unheard does it make a sound?"

...and what's up with those kids on BMX bikes?

I'd like to invite everyone to add to the narrative and send me your adventure ideas for this and all past and future maps. Let me know how you use it!

All Patreon supporters this month get the hi-res files of all maps including printable modular hex tiles featuring the Hexomorfo system and bonus content. Patrons at the $2.50+ level also receive versions with grids.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Children of Graystone are missing and the the goblins of Graystone Vale have a secret...

In the village of Graystone there is a story told to little children about goblins who used to steal unruly children in the night, but the events of the past suggest that it is not just a story. First there was the mystery of the dissapearing stockings--every left stocking in the village just vanished overnight, then the sheep started to dissapear, now it's worse, much worse.

You can download this week's free map here.
I'd like to invite everyone to add to the narrative and send me your adventure ideas for this and all past and future maps. Let me know how you use it!

All Patreon supporters this month get the hi-res files of all maps as well as bonus content. Patrons at the $2.50+ level additionally get bonus versions with grids.

Monday, December 19, 2016

The body in the middle of the street certainly looked like a suicide, "But why would a perfectly healthy young man who just won a full athletic scholarship to the best universitys in the country jump off a building, and what was he doing in this neighborhood?" Before you even ask your next question his skin begins to move and crawl as if trying to free itself from the lifeless corpse, or was it BAM, POW, ZAAAP! "Hahahaha super-fools! You will never defeat me!" The evil Blue Shark launches himself high into the air as his flying robot-squid minions attack, or perhaps it was "Listen, we don't want anyone to get hurt, so just let the hostages go and we'll talk about your demands..." whatever it is, every street corner has a story to tell, what's yours?

You can download this week's free map here.
I'd like to invite everyone to add to the narrative and send me your adventure ideas for this and all past and future maps. Let me know how you use it!

All Patreon supporters this month get the hi-res files of all maps as well as bonus content. Patrons at the $2.50+ level additionally get bonus versions with grids.

Monday, December 12, 2016

For as long as anyone can remember these ruins have always been here. For as long as anyone can remember these ruins have always been here. Some say a long dead cult built an altar here to their alien gods, another legend is that it was once part of a larger temple complex that was destroyed eons ago in the great battle of the gods, others say the weathered stone tablet is a doorway to the faerie world carried here and sealed by the ancient druids of the Singing Stones? Whatever you have been told there are great riches burried beneath the Broken Stone and perhap more, but you have also been warned, "The land is cursed! No one has ever stepped foot on the anabranch of the ruins and returned to tell the tale."

You can download this week's free map here.
I'd like to invite everyone to add to the narrative and send me your adventure ideas for this and all past and future maps. Let me know how you use it!

All Patreon supporters this month get the hi-res files of all maps as well as bonus content. Patrons at the $2.50+ level additionally get bonus versions with grids.

Last month I started a new regular feature for Patreon supporters, the "Living Terrain Tiles" series. "Living Terrain Tiles" use a hex based system that can easily be configured and re-configured into just about any type of terrain that is required for the encounter.This week, while I began to work on some new Tiles for shorelines and rivers, I realized I didn't have any forks for the stream tiles, so I have included them in this weeks creation. I have also added some additional tiles that make it possible to recreate the Broken Stone Ruins as well as the Singing Stones maps using the Living Terrain Tiles. The new tiles include a fork in the stream, 7 new meadow tiles with rock formations, 2 sets of tree tops, and a page of tree trunk texture.

Mal Fisher, the Captain of the light freighter Bella LeGosi, claims to know the whereabouts of The Lady of Esparto, an ancient lost ship carrying treasure worth millions, and he is looking to hire a salvage crew. He wants to keep everything off the books as he is operating without the required paperwork. He has chosen not to apply for a salvage license for fear that a treasure as great as the Lady of Esparto will attract too much unwanted attention, increasing the likelihood of claim jumpers, pirates, and crooked authorities looking for an easy buck. He is offering a substantial amount of money and a percentage of the treasure for the completion of the job.

This bundle includes the Savage Worlds adventure and several Sci-Fi modular dungeon tile sets, including grid versions and .jpg files for VTTs.